Tunica-Biloxi Pow Wow

"A tribal priest who wished to send a prayer to the sun, but didn't know how to get it there. He called upon his friend the bear, who said -- for in those days men and animals could understand one another plainly -- that he could carry it only to the top of the tallest tree. Fortunately, the bear knew someone able to deliver the prayer all the way to the sun: Brother Eagle. And the eagle, according to the legend, circled ever higher and higher until he reached the sun -- a beautiful woman. She said to the eagle, "Wait, give me one of your feathers, I will kiss it with my hot breath, and then you carry it back to the Tunica-Biloxi as a sign that I have chosen them as my people." And that is why, to this day, the top of an eagle's feather is still scorched black from the kiss of the sun. "